The
Republic Day is celebrated every year on January 26. To
provide a background on this day, we
give our Internet edition readers a brief note.

It was the Lahore Session of the
Indian National Congress at midnight of December 31, 1929
- January 1, 1930, that the Tricolour was unfurled by
nationalists and a pledge taken that every year on
January 26 "Independence Day" would be
celebrated and that the people would unceasingly strive
for the establishment of a Sovereign Democratic Republic
of India. We
present India's first Prime Minister's reminisces
about the Lahore Session.

The Republic Day of India
is celebrated every year on January 26, in New Delhi with
great pomp and pageant and in capitals of the States, as
well as at other headquarters and important places with
patriotic fervour.

It was the Lahore Session
of the Indian National Congress at midnight of December
31, 1929 - January 1, 1930, that the Tri-Colour Flag was
unfurled by the nationalists and a pledge taken that
every year on January 26, the "Independence
Day" would be celebrated and that the people would
unceasingly strive for the establishment of a Sovereign
Democratic Republic of India. The professed pledge was
successfully redeemed on January 26, 1950, when the
Constitution of India framed by the Constituent Assembly
of India came into force, although the Independence from
the British rule was achieved on August 15, 1947.

It is because of this that
August 15 is celebrated as Independence Day, while
January 26 as Republic Day.

The most spectacular
celebrations include the march past of the three armed
Forces, massive parades, folk dances by tribal folk from
the different states in picturesque costumes marking the
cultural unity of India. Further, the streak of jet
planes of Indian Air Force, leaving a trial of coloured
smoke, marks the end of the festival. The trees on both
sides of the routes and the lawns become alive with
spectators.

The President of India at
New Delhi, on this most colourful day, takes salute of
the contingents of Armed Forces. In the States, the
Governors take the salute, and in Taluqas and
administrative headquarters on same procedure is adopted.
At Vijay Chowk in New Delhi, three days later (i.e. 29th
January) the massed bands of the Armed Forces "Beat
the Retreat" in a majestic manner.

The Republic Day
celebrations have rightly become world famous as one of
the greatest shows on earth drawing thousands of eager
sight-seers from all over the country and many parts of
the world. No other country can draw on such a wealth of
tribal traditions and cultures, so many regional forms of
dances and dress. And, no other country in the world can
parade so many ethnically different people in splendid
uniforms as India's Armed Forces. But they are all united
in their proven loyalty to the Government elected by the
people and in their proud traditions and legendary
gallantry.

Rightly too, the Armed
Forces are entrusted with the major task of coordinating
the whole show of Republic day celebrations including the
"Beating the Retreat", a heritage left by the
British.

The following is an
excerpt from the book "Nehru, The First Sixty
Years," edited by Dorothy Norman, Asia Publishing
House, in which India's first Prime Minister, Mr
Jawaharlal Nehru, reminisces about the Lahore Congress
Session in 1930, at which it was decided that January 26
was to be fixed as Independence Day.

[The Lahore Congress,
which Nehru had addressed on December 29, 1929, continued
into early 1930.]

The Lahore Congress
remains fresh in my memory  a vivid patch.... The
whole atmosphere was electric and surcharged with the
gravity of the occasion. Our decisions were not going to
be mere criticisms or protests or expressions of opinion,
but a call to action which was bound to convulse the
country and affect the lives of millions.

What the distant future
held for us and our country, none dared prophesy; the
immediate future was clear enough, and it held the
promise of strife and suffering for us and those who were
dear to us. This thought sobered our enthusiasms and made
us very conscious of our responsibility. Every vote that
we gave became a message of farewell to ease, comfort,
domestic happiness, and the intercourse of friends, and
an invitation to lonely days and nights and physical and
mental distress.

The main resolution on
independence, and the action to be taken in furtherance
of our freedom struggle, was passed almost unanimously,
barely a score of persons, out of many thousands, voting
against it. The All-India Congress Committee had been
authorised to plan and carry out our campaign, but all
knew that the real decision lay with Gandhiji....

In spite of the enthusiasm
shown at the Congress session, no one knew what the
response of the country would be to program of action. We
had burned our boats and could not go back, but the
country ahead of us was an almost strange and uncharted
land. To give a start to our campaign, and partly also to
judge the temper of the country, January 26 was fixed as
Independence Day, when a pledge of independence was to be
taken all over the country.

And so, full of doubt
about our program, but pushed on by enthusiasm and the
desire to do something effective, we waited for the march
of events.1

[Henceforth, January 26
was to be observed annually in India as Independence Day.
It was on this date that the free Republic of India was
to be formally inaugurated in 1950.]

The following is President
Rajendra Prasad's reply to the speech of the Doyen of the
Diplomatic Corps at the Banquet in Rashtrapathi Bhavan,
New Delhi, on January 26, 1950, after India was formally
declared a Republic.

It is a great day for our
country. India has had a long and chequered history;
parts of it were cloudy and parts bright and sunlit. At
no period, even during the most glorious eras of which we
have record, was this whole country brought under one
Constitution and one rule. We have mention of many
Republics in our books and our historians have been able
to make out a more or less connected and co-ordinated
piece out of the incidents and the places which are
mentioned in these records. But these Republics were
small and tiny and their shape and size was perhaps the
same as that of the Greek Republics of that period. We
have mention of Kings and Princes, some of whom are
described as 'Chakravarty', that is, a monarch whose
suzerainty was acknowledged by other Princes. During the
British period, while acknowledging the suzerainty of
Britain, the Indian Princes continued to carry on the
administration of their territories in their own way. It
is for the first time today that we have inaugurated a
Constitution which extends to the whole of this country
and we see the birth of a federal republic having States
which have no sovereignty of their own and which are
really members and parts of one federation and one
administration.

His Excellency the
Ambassador of the Netherlands has been pleased to refer
to the relations and connections of this country with
other countries both Eastern and Western. That
relationship, so far as this country is concerned, has
always been one of friendliness. Our ancestors carried
the message of our teachers far and wide and established
cultural ties which have withstood the ravages of time
and still subsist while Empires have crumbled and fallen
to pieces. Our ties subsist because they were not of iron
and steel or even of gold but of the silken cords of the
human spirit, India has had to face, on many occasions,
assaults and invasions by foreigners and she has very
often succumbed. But, there is not a single instance of a
military invasion or aggressive war by this country
against any other. It is therefore in the fitness of
things and a culmination of our own cultural traditions
that we have been able to win our freedom without
bloodshed and in a very peaceful manner. The Father of
our Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, was not a freak of nature but
the physical embodiment and consummation of the progress
of that spirit of non-violence which has been our great
heritage. We have been able under his matchless
leadership, not only to regain our lost freedom but also
to establish and strengthen the bonds of friendship with
those  and our thanks are due to them for it 
against whose policy we have fought and won.

Our Constitution is a
democratic instrument seeking to ensure to the individual
citizens the freedoms which are so invaluable. India has
never prescribed or prosecuted opinion and faith and our
philosophy has room as much for a devotee of a personal
god, as for an agnostic or an atheist. We shall,
therefore, be only implementing in practice under our
Constitution what we have inherited from our traditions,
namely, freedom of opinion and expression. Under the new
set-up, which we are inaugurating today, we hope to live
up to the teachings of our Master and help in our own
humble way in the establishment of peace in the world.
Our attitude towards all countries is one of utmost
friendliness. We have no designs against any one, no
ambition to dominate others. Our hope is that others also
will have no designs against us. We have had bitter
experience of aggression by other countries in the past
and can only express the hope that it may not be
necessary for us to take any measures even in
self-defence.

I know the world today is
passing through a most uncertain and anxious period. Two
world wars within one generation, with all their
devastation and aftermath of suffering and sorrow, have
not been able to convince it that a war can never bring
about the end of wars. It is, therefore, necessary to
seek the end of wars in positive acts of goodness towards
all and the world must learn to utilise all its resources
for productive and beneficial purposes and not for
destruction. We do venture to think that this country may
have a past to play in establishing this goodwill and
atmosphere of confidence and co-operation. We have
inherited no old enmities. Our republic enters the world
stage, therefore, free from pride and prejudice, humbly
believing and striving that in international as well as
internal affairs our statesmen may be guided by the
teachings of the Father of our Nation  tolerance,
understanding non-violence and resistance to aggression.

It is in such a country
and at such a time that it has pleased the
representatives of our people to call me to this high
office. You can easily understand my nervousness which
arises not only form the tremendousness of the task with
which our newly won freedom is confronted but also from a
consciousness that I succeed in this sphere of activity,
though not in office, one who has played such a
conspicuous part not only during the period of strife and
struggle but also during the period of constructive
activity and active administration. You know Sri
Chakravarty Rajagopalachari and have experience of his
incisive intellect, great learning, practical wisdom and
sweetness of manners. It has been my privilege to have
been associated with him for more than 30 years and
although we might have had occasional differences of
opinion on some vital matters but never have our personal
relations suffered by setback and I feel sure that I
shall continue to enjoy the benefit of his protective
advice in whatever crises I may have to face. My
nervousness and anxiety are to no small extent countered
by a consciousness that I shall be the recipient of
fullest confidence from our Prime Minister, Deputy Prime
Minister, the Members of the Cabinet and the Legislature
and from the people at large. I shall endeavour my best
to earn and deserve that confidence. Let me also hope
that this country will be able to win the confidence of
other nations and secure such assistance as it may
require in times of need. I have great pleasure in
responding to the toast which has been proposed.

The following is the text of a story published in The New
York Times dated January 26, 1950.

India
a Republic, Prasad President Proclamation and InductionImplement
Sovereignty and Sever Ties With BritishTwo-Day
National Holiday By
Robert Trumbull
Special to The New York Times

New Delhi, Jan. 25 
The proclamation of the Republic of India and the
induction of the first President, Dr. Rajendra Prasad,
will be marked by a two-day national holiday.

At the moment the office
of Governor General ceases, a line of forty-nine
occupants, going back to Warren Hastings, will end. The
Governors General have included some of the brightest
names in the British Empire's history.

The event also
significantly alters the complexion of the Commonwealth,
whose largest member, with about one-sixth of the earth's
population, will no longer recognise the King of Great
Britain as its sovereign. The Republic of India will,
however, continue to accept the King as the symbolic head
of the Commonwealth of Nations.

British
Insignias Removed

The British
arms and the royal crown have already been removed from
the public buildings, except the two crowns that tower
over the immense secretariat buildings opposite
Government House on New Delhi's highest eminence. How to
dislodge these ornaments, weighing two tons each, without
the risk that they would crash through the secretariat
roof, has baffled Indian engineers. The other crowns have
been replaced by a symbolic Asoka pillar.

The pillar of
Asoka, recalling the great Buddhist Emperor whose reign
began in 274 B. C., will replace the crown on police and
service flags and on uniform insignia. At the same time
the prefix "royal" will be dropped from the
designations of the Indian army, navy and air force. New
currency and stamps of Indian design will be issued.

Assumption of
the status of a "sovereign democratic republic"
brings in to force the new Constitution, which abolishes
untouchability and includes the most detailed document of
fundamental rights of any constitution. All present laws
in conflict with the Constitution are automatically
repealed.

India's nine Governors'
Provinces, eleven Chief Commissioners' Provinces and
eight Princely States and Unions, will be known as States
under the new Constitution.

A Governor will continue
to be called His Excellency, and a Maharajah His
Highness, although the Chief of State will be addressed
simply as Mr. President. But no more titles may be
accepted by Indian nationals except in cases of
hereditary princes whose honors are guaranteed by a
covenant with the Central Government.

Jan. 26 was chosen for the
inauguration of the republic because on that date twenty
years ago the Indian National Congress, now the governing
party, issued a pledge that India must become completely
free and independent of British rule.

Dr. Prasad, four times
president of the Congress, will be head of state until
the first general elections are held. These are
tentatively scheduled for next winter. Meanwhile, the
present assembly will be a provisional Parliament and
will hold its first meeting as such on Saturday when the
President will read his first formal message.

Territorial readjustments
between the various units that will constitute the Indian
Republic were announced today.

There are hundreds of
small enclaves consisting of villages, towns and forest
areas belonging to one unit but situated in a
neighbouring territory, thus creating serious
administrative difficulties. The States Ministry
announcement said that all such bits of land would be
absorbed by the unit in which they are situated. For
instance, these adjustments will involve the merger of
110 Hyderabad State villages with Bombay Province and the
taking over of ninety-three Bombay Province villages by
the Hyderabad Government.

There are about 1,600
enclaves, ranging in area from a few square yards to
several square miles.